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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Tutorial: How to Make Recycled Paper Beads

I remember making these in my 5th. grade class for mother's day present and I got so hooked, I went home and kept making some more. I totally forgot about them until I saw some at this trendy store in Orange County, California and they were selling it for like $10 for a bracelet!! whaaaaa.....??? lol. I'm sorry, but I would never buy a paper beaded bracelet when I can make my own. It's super easy and cheap! Here is a basic tutorial on how to make these beads.

You will need:

Magazine papers

Ruler

Scissors

Glue/Gloss ( I used Mod Podge since it acts both as a glue and as a finish gloss)

Toothpicks

Small Paint brush/Q-tip

Pen

Take out a page from a magazine and using a ruler and a pen, you're going to mark this pattern onto the magazine paper.

This 8.5/11 inch paper makes 15 triangles strips.

Basically, bunch of long triangles. Measure the base of the triangles to 1 inch; which will be the size of your beads.

Cut out the triangles. Take your toothpick and start rolling the paper from the base of the triangle. Make sure you're rolling it tightly.

As you get close to the edge, apply some Mod Podge with a brush or a Q-tip onto the paper and continue rolling to finish. Apply Mod Podge to the bead to seal and gloss.

Stick the toothpick with the bead into a foam to let it dry. You want to apply 2 to 3 coats of the gloss to securely seal the bead.

You wanna make beads like these??

Easy! All you have to do is use a longer magazine paper. Just glue together the ends of two magazine papers to make a long one, and make the base of the triangles to 1/2 inch.